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Tadpolenese 摩登蝌蚪字

Notice: apologies, the tonal spelling scheme for Yang-Shang and Yang-Qu categories are undergoing changes. As a result, in the future you will not see -rl combinations any more. The web pages here will be gradually changed to the new scheme.

I'll sit next to you on the bench,listen to your endeavors from your younger days.

It doesn't matter whether we have fancy meals,

neither do we know to blame luck or people.

Your hand, I'll hold it tight,

because I will always stand behind you.

I spent the best time of my life, married to you in a family.

I followed you from young to old.

Life's stories, I have seem them all,

who else is more important than you?

I dedicated my life to a family,

only to find out that happiness comes with its ups and downs.

When the time of departure comes,

I'd let you go first...

because I cannot hold the thought that...

I'd leave you in tears for me.

One day, when we get old,

and our children are there for us,

if you get bored, let us go over our picture albums,

and check out how handsome you were at our wedding.

It doesn't matter whether we have fancy clothes,

neither do we know to blame anything.

Your heart, I'll always keep it on my mind,

because I will always stand behind you.

I spent the best time of my life, married to you in a family.

I followed you from young to old.

Life's stories, I have seen them all,

who else is more important than you?

I dedicated my life to a family,

only to find out that happiness comes with its ups and downs.

When the time of departure comes,

You should let me go first...

because I cannot hold the thought that...

I'd see you in tears for me.

This is an experimental linguistic site using Hoklo song lyrics transcribed alphabetically. Whenever available, a link to a third-party site hosting the video clip or sound file will be provided.

Q: What is Tadpolenese 摩登蝌蚪字?

A: It's a creative way of transcribing Hoklo song lyrics, so that we can analyze the special features and needs of this language.

Q: What are the spelling rules of Tadpolenese?

A: Ahem... when you have figured out the spelling rules of English, please let me know. But if you can live with a partial answer, you can look at some explanation 略述 of Tadpolenese.

Q: What is special about Tadpolenese?

A: Tadpolenese uses only 26 letters. Tones are represented by letters as well. There is no need for special fonts, special input methods, or special software. Hoklo is a stereotonic language, and currently Tadpolenese is the only Hoklo transcription system that elucidates the tonal-phrase structure of this stereotonic language.(See Running-Standing or Sandhi'ed-Default 該是「動調及靜調」還是「變調及本調」).

Q: Why is it called Tadpolenese?

A: Because there are many little tadpoles (e.g: ' ` ; . , - etc.) in this script.

Q: What kinds of Hoklo songs do you like?

A: Preferably colloquial ones. Literary songs are great for reading, but impossible to understand by listening. Beside songs, there are also a few dialectal speeches transcribed here.

Q: Why do you call it "Hoklo" and not "Min Nan", "Hokkien" or "Taiwanese"?

A: Because "Hoklo" is the name the native speakers called themselves many hundred years ago, no matter where they lived. Here you will find Hoklo songs from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland, etc. Strictly speaking, Teochew is also a Hoklo-family language. (E.g: coc goec [gehmee dee] 錯過 [隔夜茶] and koul'luant 苦戀 )

Q: Can you translate more songs into English?

A: It's a lot of work. No promises.

Q: 拜託你用中文解釋,好不好？

A: 很煩耶。現在是二十一世紀了，世界村的小孩子們嘛樣樣精通... 語言障礙是上個世紀的問題﹝換句話說，你太老了﹞。抱歉啦！

Q: Can you provide some kind of tutorial into Tadpolenese?

A: Ehem... how I can teach if I am still learning? Tadpolenese doesn't have fixed rules, and the spellings of many words are not quite stable. I would rather see people take the roles of leaders and come up with other innovations, instead of just being plain followers. Unlike users of other romanization schemes, I don't seek to promote Tadpolenese. Tadpolenese is for people to have fun, and I encourage people to go out and invent something better. Tadpolenese is here for people to see and to think, and hopefully one day, other people can come up with better ideas. I will try to provide some tutorial in the future. For now, here is some basic attempt: Tutorial.